Ricki Lake

Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968 ) is an American actress, television presenter and producer. Lake is best known for her talk show which was broadcast internationally from September 1993 until May 2004. When Lake's show debuted, she was 24 and credited as being the youngest person to host a syndicated talk show at the time. In autumn 2012, Lake embarked on a second syndicated talk show project The Ricki Lake Show (dubbed as The New Ricki Lake Show), which aired on weekdays. In 2013, the series was canceled after one season but Lake won her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Lake made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character in John Waters's 1988 cult-classic Hairspray. Lake also starred in other Waters films including Cry-Baby (with Johnny Depp and Susan Tyrrell), Cecil B. Demented (with Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff), and Serial Mom (with Kathleen Turner and Sam Waterston). She starred in Mrs. Winterbourne with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser, Cabin Boy, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Cookie, and Inside Monkey Zetterland.

She joined the cast of the Vietnam War drama series China Beach as a Red Cross volunteer, Holly "the Donut Dolly" Pelegrino, for the show's third season. She also had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens as Doug's sister Stephanie.